Kurosawa: the Emperor

Akira Kurosawa is the most internationally influential Japanese director. Seven Samurai (1954) created the template for ensemble action films that Hollywood has copied endlessly (The Magnificent Seven, Star Wars). His use of weather as emotion — rain during battle, wind during tension — became a global filmmaking standard.

Kurosawa moved the camera with a dynamism that influenced generations. But his action scenes work because they are earned by patient character development. The audience cares about who lives and dies because Kurosawa spent hours making them real people before putting them in danger.